Earlier this week, we finally got around to watching Atari: Game Over - the documentary about the rise and fall of Atari, focusing on the burial (and subsequent unearthing) of millions of copies of the Atari 2600 E.T. game.

For a long while E.T. was generally considered to be the worst game of all time. Developed in just five weeks to meet a Christmas release deadline, it was blamed for kicking Atari to its knees. However, the documentary makes a fair stab at arguing against this perceived wisdom - suggesting that there were far worse games than E.T., both before and since.

Unfortunately, Atari - in whatever weird form it exists today - seems determined to be known for publishing The Worst Game of All Time.

ROLLERCOASTERWe don't quite understand why the original Rollercoaster Tycoon - released in 1999 - never got more stick for being a shameless rip-off of 1994's Theme Park. However, there's no denying that it was a much-loved, if shamelessly unoriginal, franchise.

Now Atari is returning the brand to the PC, with Rollercoaster Tycoon World. Here's their slightly boring enthuse-o-guff, which you're probably just going to skip, and we don't even care:

"The beloved and fan-favourite RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise soars to new heights with RollerCoaster Tycoon World! RCTW is packed with all the fun-filled features fans know and love, plus brand-new innovations including an intuitive 3D track builder, deformable terrain, realistic coaster physics, and the ability to share your park creations.

"Players can also team-up with friends from around the globe to form a theme park company and compete with others worldwide. Experience the ride of your life as you customize incredible coasters, entertain your park guests, create stomach-churning corkscrews and become the world's next RollerCoaster Tycoon."

That all sounds exciting doesn't it? Unfortunately, a teaser for Atari's RollerCoaster Tycoon World suggest it's going to resemble a terrible, mid-90s PC game. Frankly, it looks about as visually appealing filling a trombone full of meat and roe, and blowing it in the face of a fat drunk.

Maybe that's deliberate. Maybe it isn't. It isn't entirely fair to pre-judge a game on unfinished footage, but it does beggar belief that they'd think this was good enough to release publicly:

I think RCT was forgiven for its unoriginality due to its brilliant execution and level of polish. I'm biased though as I worked on RCT3. Frontier are now doing an unofficial follow-up, Coaster Park Tycoon. Let's wait and see which is better :)

Reply

Super Bad Advice

6/3/2015 04:58:48 am

The name doesn't even make sense. It implies it's a theme park full of rollercoaster tycoons? That would be the third worst theme park ever, after "Retired Parking Attendant World" and "Compulsory Enema Land".

Reply

Leigh

6/3/2015 12:25:04 pm

What are the ticket prices like for Compulsory Enema Land? Asking for a friend.

Reply

Ebeneezer Quim

8/3/2015 11:33:29 am

I went to Compulsory Enema World in America with my in-laws and we all agreed it was the tits! On the other hand I went to Compulsory Enema Land Paris with a party from our congregation and all agreed we felt violated. I would probably think twice before going again.

Reply

Cf

6/3/2015 06:10:35 am

I don't understand the transition between CGI and in game. It only serves to highlight how bad the game looks. And they do this twice.

Reply

Doctor Stranger

6/3/2015 08:35:05 am

Someone thought it was a good idea to animate a man vomiting into his closed mouth as a final 'must buy' image?